An artificial marble is an artificially synthesized material embodying the texture of native rock by combining additives such as natural stone dusts, minerals and/or resin chips with a cement base or a resin base such as an acrylic resin, an unsaturated polyester resin and/or an epoxy resin.
The artificial marbles may be roughly divided into single colored products (solid products) and products (granite products) comprising chips and the like. Representative examples of the artificial marbles include acrylic artificial marbles, polyester artificial marbles, epoxy artificial marbles, melamine artificial marbles or engineered stone (E-stone) type artificial marbles and the like. Such artificial marbles have a beautiful appearance and an excellent workability, are lighter than natural marbles and have an excellent strength. Therefore such artificial marbles are widely used as various interior/exterior materials such as various upper board materials, dressing tables, washstands, counters, wall materials, floors and furniture.
Now, in order to embody closer patterns to natural rock or new patterns not known yet in the artificial marble, there is an attempt to form stripe patterns on the artificial marbles, or give variety to a size, a color or a quality of the chips contained in the artificial marbles. However, the above technique has limit to form excellent patterns, since there are concerns that it makes a monotonous impression. In addition, as an alternative process, there is a method of imitating patterns such as BIANCO in a way that patterns are directly painted in products. However, in this way, it is also difficult to freely regulate patterns and there is a drawback that reproducibility is lowered.